US Border Crisis Deepens as Thousands of Haitians Swarmed US; Human Rights Leaders Decry Treatment of Migrants

A report released Wednesday stated that illegal Haitian immigrants being deported from the United States attacked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents onboard a plane prepared to take off from a US Air Force facility in Texas.

The incident was one of at least three this week in which Haitians caught for attempting to enter the US illegally from Mexico turned violent after being placed on planes home.

Around 8 a.m. Monday, two unidentified men jumped out of their seats on an aircraft carrying passengers toward a runway at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Texas - where as many as 15,000 illegal Haitian migrants had gathered during the previous week - and attacked ICE officials who were bitten among the chaos.

Guards at US border reportedly whipped at Haitian migrants

According to the Washington Examiner, the plane returned to the gate and the men were taken into prison for federal assault charges. The incident came after a 5 a.m. trip to Haiti was postponed earlier Monday because apprehended migrants awaiting deportation were "being disruptive and not cooperating" as the plane was ready to take off. Deportees are typically not allowed to be restrained during flights due to FAA regulations.

Per BBC, many Americans have compared the photos to historical depictions of slavery, which ended in 1865, and other terrible times in American history for black people. For example, one frequently circulated image combines a current photo from the US border with a historical picture of an African slave being dragged by a rope and whipped.

The claim that the agents "whipped" the migrants have been refuted by officials. The policemen are just holding the reins that are used to manage the horses, according to the National Fraternal Order of Police labor union.

Derrick Johnson, the president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation's oldest civil rights group, is one of the notable voices who has spoken out about the photos. Johnson discussed the matter with administration officials and members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday.

The new photos of officers on horseback corralling black individuals - notably white males - come at a time when the United States is "in the middle of a racial reckoning." Mark Naison, history and African and African-American studies professor at Fordham University in New York, feels that the public's reaction to the border pictures is a logical outcome of rising public knowledge of the country's history of maltreatment of black people.

Groups condemn Biden administration's reaction to the migrant encampment

According to a letter delivered to President Joe Biden on Wednesday, civil and human rights organizations criticized the White House's immigration policy for inflicting "cruelty on Black, Brown, and Indigenous immigrant communities."

The letter arrived at the White House amid widespread bipartisan condemnation of President Joe Biden's reaction to a migrant encampment of thousands of primarily Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, just across the border from Mexico.

During a trip to the area earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress on Tuesday that the situation in Del Rio was a "human tragedy" that officials were working to resolve.

Mayorkas said US officials have decreased the size of the encampment to about 10,000 individuals by Tuesday, down from a peak of 15,000 last week. The letter made no mention of pictures and videos that surfaced earlier this week purporting to show Border Patrol officials on horseback charging migrants as they attempted to cross the Rio Grande in Del Rio.

The agents looked to be waving or whipping reins towards the migrants or in the air in several of the images. Democrats have been especially outspoken in their condemnation of the agents' actions, as per the LA Times. The photos were "horrible and human beings should never be treated that way," said Vice President Kamala Harris.